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As a brash young upstart, he stretched the limits of tennis etiquette.
Yet his decade-long rivalry with Pete Sampras and eight Grand Slam
victories would establish him as one of the greatest to ever roam the
baseline. Here, the author of the memoir Open–out this month–muses
on family, Federer, and finding his true calling.Illustration by Risko December 2009

Answer your own Proust Questionnaire on Facebook.

What is your current state of mind?
Content, but expectant.

Which living person do you most admire?
Stefanie Graf.

What is your greatest fear?
Letting down the people I love.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
At times I’ve been blinded by loyalty.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Disloyalty.

What is your greatest extravagance?
I’ve been known to travel vast distances to try out a new snowboard.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
A tie: patience and stoicism.

Which living person do you most despise?
I don’t have time to despise. But there are one or two broken people whom I definitely avoid.

Which talent would you most like to have?
Roger Federer’s.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would be less unsettled/obsessed by questions like this one.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
The Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Waking up one day and not being able to tell the good guys from the bad guys in my life.

What is your favorite occupation?
I haven’t found it yet.

What do you most value in your friends?
Their time.

Who are your favorite writers?
C. S. Lewis, J. R. Moehringer.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Odysseus.

How would you like to die?
At the dawn of the 22nd century, doing something I hate.